Governor Susana Martinez

A dynamic leader and our nation’s first Hispanic governor, Susana Martinez’s inspirational life story proves the power and promise of the American Dream.

Governor of New Mexico (2011-2018)

Governor Susana Martinez

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A skilled and respected prosecutor, Susana Martinez was elected Governor of New Mexico, where she worked across party lines to turn the state’s largest budget deficit into a record surplus, slashed the unemployment rate, and increased the high school graduation rate by 10 percentage points to an all-time high.

In 2010, Susana Martinez was elected governor of the State of New Mexico. She became New Mexico’s first female governor and the first Hispanic female governor in the history of the United States. Prior to being elected governor, Martinez was a prosecutor for 25 years along the nation’s southern border and served as Doña Ana County’s elected district attorney for over half that time. Martinez became her county’s top criminal prosecutor, where she specialized throughout her career in child abuse and sexual abuse cases.

A hard-charging education reformer and budget hawk, Martinez is an optimistic conservative leader who worked with Republicans and Democrats alike to put the state’s fiscal house in order, raise academic standards and graduation rates, and usher in a true economic turnaround in New Mexico. As governor, she prioritized keeping New Mexico’s communities safe, ensuring all students receive a high-quality education, and diversifying and growing the state’s economy.

In 2014, Governor Martinez won re-election by the largest margin of any Republican gubernatorial candidate in modern history, earning substantial support from Democratic and Independent voters in rural and urban areas alike. She served alongside a Democratically-controlled Legislature throughout her time in office, with the exception of a two-year period of Republican control of one chamber.

She has been named to Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World and served as a Chairman and long-time executive committee member of the Republican Governors Association (RGA). During her chairmanship, she broke RGA fundraising records and, at the conclusion of her term, Republicans held the greatest number of gubernatorial offices in U.S. history.